A Piece of Peace
What do you do when your entire world crumbles in an instant? When you experience a loss that plummets you into a despair so painful you can’t think, breathe, or even feel because you are so overwhelmed with the immensity of your emotions?
What do you do when you feel all alone in that space? Where people around you are sad and grieve, but don’t experience the devastation you do?
I don’t know what you do, but here is what I did: I followed the example of Jesus, and I cried out my devastation to the only One who really knew how I felt, and who would cry the same grief with me.
Our tears watered the ground from which grew the Fruit of Peace.
“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law,” (Galatians 6:22 - 24).
Too often we confuse the peace of God with our worldly definition of peace. Peace means freedom from disturbance, tranquility; a state or period in which there is no war or a war has ended. That is the world’s view of peace.
God’s definition is vastly different.
In Isaiah 9:7, one of the names given to the Messiah (Jesus) is Prince of Peace, and in John 14:27, Jesus says, “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid,” and in John 16:33 Jesus says, “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”
The peace Christ gives us is not tranquil or free from disturbance. The peace Christ gives us has nothing to do with what we’re going through and everything to do with Him.
It is the peace David had when he wrote Psalm 4:8, “In peace I will lie down and sleep,
for you alone, Lord, make me dwell in safety.” The peace that allows us to sleep and rest when our world is in chaos because God is the Eye of the Storm. Our God, who spoke existence into existence, is in control.
It is the peace David wrote about in Psalm 119:165, “Great peace have those who love your law, and nothing can make them stumble.” The peace that comes from studying the Word of God, memorizing it, and living it in a way that every step we take is a step in the foot imprint left for us by Jesus.
It is the peace Isaiah spoke about in Isaiah 26:3, “You will keep in perfect peace
those whose minds are steadfast, because they trust in you.” The peace we have when the world says we’re wrong, but we know we’re right because God said it, and I AM doesn’t change (Malachi 3:6).
It is the peace Jesus had in the Garden of Gethsemane when he prayed for God to take the cup of crucifixion and separation from his Father away from Him, yet was adamant in his resolve that not His will, but God’s, should be done.
It is the peace I found myself desperate for these last weeks since my dad died suddenly.
Only someone who has lost a beloved parent will understand what that’s like. You know it is going to happen someday, but you never expect it to be TODAY. I suppose if your parent is very ill or in a hospital, you might expect death any day, but still - not TODAY. If you both had plans as we did - plans to spend more time together, to get more exercise, to sit down and map out a family tree since we’d recently connected with a larger group of family members, and so much more - it is even more devastating because the plans you had filed in the To-Do tray have just been violently shoved into the NEVER incinerator.
I really can’t find anyone who is as devastated as I am.
Except for God - who does know what it’s like to lose someone beloved, and worse - the death of God’s Son was HIS plan.
So, I went to Him, and I stayed with Him. In the Eye of my Storm. He reminded me to, “Be still, and know that I am God,” (Psalm 46:10).
This verse, which before I had always held fast to when I needed to let God have complete control over something, now revealed itself as fundamentally about God’s peace.
Be still and KNOW.
This is true faith. We mistakenly think faith is belief, but it’s not. True Christian faith is KNOWING. Know = FACT.
Psalm 46:10 doesn't say, “Be still and BELIEVE,” or “Be still and THINK,” or “Be still and TRUST,” or any other word we interchange with faith.
Psalm 46:10 says, “Be still and KNOW.” FACT - God is I Am. FACT - God loves me. FACT - God loves my dad. FACT - God loves you.
FACT: The peace fruit God wants us to grow is HIS peace. A Peace that allows us to sleep and give our troubles over to God because He’ll be up all night anyway. The Peace that comes from KNOWING His word and being able to apply it in every situation, for every emotion, and to everyone. A Peace that comes from trusting God has a plan and is always working on our behalf. The Peace that gives us power and authority to say GOD’S will be done, even if that will be death, because Jesus conquered the grave.
It is His peace He wants us to have for ourselves to get us through the grief of this life. It is also His peace He wants those in the world to see in us, want it, and come to Christ because of it.
I think if we truly have His peace, we won’t really be able to explain it because, as Philippians 4:7 says, “And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”
We won’t be able to explain it - we’ll just have to live it.
AMEN
